United’s morale was not high, as
Valencia’s 1-1 draw at Elland Road had tilted the
scales in the Spaniards’ favour and United also came into the game after being
knocked out of the FA Cup by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge the previous Saturday.
Despite the defeat United had performed well at StamfordBridge and had used Paul Madeley, wearing the No.9 shirt but acting as a defender to
very successfully block out the potential problem of Chelsea’s
Peter Osgood. Don Revie was so pleased with the
performance that he relied upon the same formation and tactics for the trip to Spain.

After the recriminations of the first leg when everyone
blamed each other, it was thought that the second leg was doomed to be act two
in the horror series. Fortunately it did not happen as both teams were on their
best behaviour in front of a huge 45,000 crowd at the fiercely parochial and
intimidating Mestalla Stadium but the return game was another lively affair.

Gary Sprake was in unbeatable form
in goal and maintained his record of keeping a clean-sheet in away games in the
competition, while Jack Charlton atoned for his Elland Road aberration and was
a tower of strength in defence. While Valencia
did have the majority of the possession, Jack Charlton was in total charge and
snuffed out the threat posed by the Brazilian star forward Waldo.

Leeds were
forced to defend in numbers and the hosts wasted several good chances, with Juan
Muñoz missing an open goal, before Waldo saw his
goal-bound header cleared off the line by Norman Hunter. VincenteGuillot then hit the post for Valencia, before Leeds grabbed their vital away goal.

Paul Madeley wore the number nine
jersey but operated to good effect in anchoring the midfield. This helped United show their growing maturity by soaking up all that Valencia
had to throw at them before silencing the crowd with a brilliant Mike O’Grady
strike to win the game by the only goal. Receiving a perfect ball from Paul Madeley, he beat the Valencia
off-side trap, then, shaking off a double tackle,he cut inside and set his sights on
goal. He then unleashed a low angled shot past RiveroNito after seventy-five minutes. The goalkeeper and
the left back Toto were so convinced O’Grady had been offside that they raced
up to the linesman and tried to grab the flag from out of his hand. The Swiss
Referee was having none of it and waved away their protests and Valencia
resigned themselves to defeat as once again United
triumphed 2-1 on aggregate. They progressed to a Fourth Round showdown with
highly-rated Hungarian team UjpestDozsa.

Mike O’Grady had been bought from HuddersfieldTown
to add width and trickery down the flanks for £30,000 and he paid back a huge
chunk of that fee when he scored the goal that won the game for United and sent
them through to Fourth Round at the expense of one of the favourites to win the
Fairs Cup.

The Fairs Cup was now reduced to just eight teams and had a
distinct British and Spanish look about it. Barcelona
had beaten Hannover on the
toss of a coin, Real Zaragoza had beaten Hearts after
a replay, Espanyol had got past Red Flag after a
replay, United had triumphed over another Spanish club in Valencia
and Chelsea knocked out AC Milan on
the toss of a coin, while Dunfermline
had disposed of Spartak Brno. UjpestDozsa had got past Cologne
6-3 on aggregate and TSV Munich finished 5-2 aggregate winners over Servette. Barcelonawere paired with Espanyol, Dunfermline with Real Zaragoza
United with UjpestDozsa
and Chelsea with TSV Munich for a place in the Semi-Finals.

Players:

Leeds-born Mike O’Grady was in scintillating
form to score theGary Sprake was in unbeatable form and
saved from Waldo